'There is no virtue in boycotting the census – for either spurious big brother reasons, or because you don't like Lockheed Martin.' Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Its time for the 2011 census and I would urge everyone to fill the forms in as best they can and understand that this is a really important exercise. The census is all about providing the state with key demographic data so that it can understand the nature of our communities much better than it does. It is a snapshot of the UK on one particular day in one particular year – but the data gathered has profound ramifications for all communities and for some time to come.

Billions of pounds worth of public expenditure will be allocated on the basis of the census data, across the widest range of public services including local government, education, health, roads and police. At a time when our communities already face severe cutbacks in public spending, an accurate as possible census will be even more essential. The census is the starting point for resource allocation and needs to be as robust as possible. We have already seen recently that the government struggles to keep up with the changing nature of our communities – and this would be made even more so without the census.

I know the relationship between the state and an individual's data is a sensitive one, but those who argue that the census goes too far and should be ignored are profoundly wrong – and actually give the state an excuse not to deal with the complexities of our communities. The basic data required by the census will allow the government to distribute resources fairly and, crucially, will allow communities to campaign when treated unfairly by government.

There have been calls to boycott the census because Lockheed Martin got the contract – but this, too, would be absolutely wrong. People have a right to object to contracting out or the choice of Lockheed Martin, but should do so without damaging the census. I don't particularly like the notion of contracting out, but there are other ways to object than a boycott that will harm our communities for years to come because of the way resources are distributed.

It is also important that the census is as detailed as possible and gives us as much granularity about the rich mixture of our communities. So it is important to know where people come from, so as to target help and support where needed. It is important to know how many people of each faith, and no faith, there are in the country so that we can understand our communities better and ensure fairness and equity in the distribution of resources. It is important to know the age structures and profiles of our communities so that resources are focused accordingly.

Even in happier times, the state can get the allocation of resources completely messed up, especially by not responding to change quickly enough – and this will be made far worse by an inaccurate or less-than-comprehensive census. There are also enormously important historic reasons why the census is important in telling us and future generations who we were in 2011 – so I hope notions from this government about scrapping the next census are wrong. If anything, we may need it every five years, not 10.

So there is no virtue in boycotting the census – for either spurious "big brother" reasons, or because you don't like Lockheed Martin. The only real people to suffer from a boycott and, therefore, a less-than-accurate census, will be the poorer communities that rely so much on our public services. So, however much of a nuisance or hassle, fill the form out as accurately and comprehensively as you can and know that you are contributing to history and a fairer distribution of resources.

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